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have two categories- ‘Literate’ and ‘illiterate’.

◆ Manifold attribute- Those attributes that possess more than
two categories are called manifold attributes. It is also called
◆ More than two nominal attributes which does not possess any order. For
categories example, when you classify respondents based on their Age,

it can have many categories- ‘Young’, ‘Middle aged’, and
‘Old’.

Variables and Attributes can be clearly understood from the
following information:

Attributes Variables

Characteristics/ qualities
that describes some object Logical grouping of
attributes
or person

Male/Female Gender

Teacher, Driver Occupation

Upper, Middle, Lower Social class

3.1.3 Measurement

Measurement involves the process of attributing symbols,
letters, or numbers to empirical properties of variables following
specific rules. The purpose of measurement is to represent the
characteristics of an object using numerical or symbolic values.
While certain properties such as weight and height can be directly
measured using standard units, other attributes like motivation to
◆ Assigning numerals succeed or ability to handle stress pose more significant challenges
or symbols in quantification. When numbers are used, the researcher must
have a rule for assigning a number to an observation in a way that
provides an accurate description. We do not measure the object
but some characteristics or variables of it. Therefore, in research,
people/items are not measured, what is measured is only their
perception, attitude or any other relevant characteristic. There are
two reasons why numbers are usually assigned. One reason is that
the numbers allow the statistical analysis of the resulting data.
And the other reason is that they facilitate the communication of
measurement results.

92 SGOU - SLM -MCom Research Methodology